Lesson 9: THE LAWS OF PHYSICS · Kinetic Energy (KE)

Subtopic 1: Mass, Momentum, and Energy Conservation Kinetic Energy is the energy an object possesses due to its
Law of Conservation of Mass motion.

Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794) was a French nobleman and . Potential Energy (PE)
chemist who is widely considered as the father of modern Potential energy is the energy that an object possesses due
chemistry. He is known for his discovery of the role of to its position or configuration. It is the energy that can be
oxygen in combustion, and for his law of conservation of stored and converted into kinetic energy, when the object
mass. is released, allowed to fall, or otherwise allowed to move.
The amount of potential energy an object possesses
The law of conservation of mass states that in a closed depends on its mass, height above a reference level, and
system, the mass of the system remains constant over the strength of the force acting on it.
time, as long as there is no matter entering or leaving the
system. This means that the total mass of the reactants in Subtopic 3: Momentum and Collision
a chemical reaction must equal the total mass of the
products. In physics, momentum is defined as the product of an
object's mass and velocity. It is a vector quantity, meaning
Law of Conservation of Energy it has both magnitude and direction. Momentum is
conserved in a closed system, meaning the total
The word “energy” comes from the Greek enérgeia. momentum before an event is equal to the total
Developed by Aristotle, enérgeia has no direct translation momentum after the event.
to English. It is frequently described as “being at work”.
Between 1842 and 1847, Julius Robert von Mayer, James Lesson 10: LIGHT AS WAVE AND A PARTICLE
Prescott Joule, and Hermann von Helmholtz discovered
and formulated the basics of what we refer to today as the Subtopic 1: The Nature of Light
law of conservation of energy.
At slow speeds, a curvature of a thrown ball was easily
The law of conservation of energy states that energy observed because of the effect of gravity but at high
cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed speeds the ball is inclined to follow a straight line.
from one form to another. This means that the total According to Sir Isaac Newton, light travels in straight lines,
amount of energy in a closed system remains constant thus its particles must move at very high speeds.
over time.
Light can travel straight through empty space (vacuum)
Law of Conservation of Momentum until it hits something else. Once it has hit another surface
or particle, it is either absorbed, reflected (bounces off),
The law of conservation of momentum is one of the most refracted (direction and speed changes), scattered
prominent laws in physics. This states that for two or more (bounce-off in all directions) or transmitted (passes
bodies in an isolated system acting upon each other, their straight through) as seen in Figure 1. But is light a wave or
total momentum remains constant unless an external a particle?
force is applied. Therefore, momentum can neither be
created nor destroyed.

Subtopic 2: Work and Energy

Work is defined as the energy transferred to or from an

object by means of a force acting on the object as it moves
in the direction of the force. It is typically measured in units
of joules (J) which is equivalent to newton-meter (N·m) or
(kg m2 /s2 ).
The Corpuscular (particle) Theory – Newton’s Theory
Energy is a property that describes the capacity of a According to the theory, Newton thought that light is made
physical system to do work. It comes in different forms up of particles that travel through space on a straight line.
such as kinetic, potential, and thermal energy, and is
conserved in a closed system.
 Reflection is the bouncing of light as it hits a surface. relative size of the wavelength of light to the size of the
Newton demonstrated that particles collide with the opening.
surface and bounce back (see figure a).
Light is a particle, a wave or both depending on the
Refraction is the bending of light. It is an attraction phenomenon.
between the molecules of the medium and the particles of
light which contribute to the change of speed as the
particles of the light travels inside the medium (see figure
c)

Diffraction is the bending of light as it passes around the

edge of an object. Newton felt that light does not travel
around corners. He explained that any observed effect of
this is caused by the interaction of particles when they run
Subtopic 2: Energy of Light
into each other at the edges of the objects.

Newton thought that light was made of particles

Dispersion is the separation of light into colors. Newton
(corpuscles) that emanated from the light source. Light can
explained that particles of different mass would be
be described as a quanta or packet of energy that behaves
affected differently when refracted.
as if they were particles. Light quanta are called photons.
The photoelectric effect introduced evidence that light
showed particle properties. Photons are emitted when
electrons of an atom are excited.

When light is shown on an atom, its electrons absorb

photon which causes them to gain energy and jump to a
Wave Theory of Light higher level. Since an electron can only exist at certain
energy levels, it can only emit photons of certain
Christian Huygens, a Dutch physicist, argued that if light frequencies. The emitted light can be perceived as a series
were made of particles, when light beams crossed, the of colored lines called a line or atomic spectra. Each
particles would collide and cancel each other. He proposed element produces a unique set of spectral line.
that light was a wave similar to that of water waves.
The electromagnetic spectrum depicts all of the types of
Huygens’ Principle – each point on a wave, behaves as a light, including those that we cannot see in our own eyes.
point source for waves in the direction of wave motion. In fact, most of the light in the universe is invisible to
Huygens’ wave model of light explains reflection, humans.
refraction, and diffraction of light
The light we can see, made up of the individual colors of
Reflection happens when light bounces off an object. the rainbow, represents only a very small portion of the
Upon hitting a smooth surface as illustrated in figure b, electromagnetic spectrum. It is called visible light. Other
light would be reflected. The waves would bounce back, types of light include radio waves, microwaves, infrared
producing a reversed image of the wave. radiation, ultraviolet rays, X-rays and gamma rays — all of
which are imperceptible to human eyes.
Refraction – is the bending of wave when it enters a
medium where its speed changes. In figure d, the
wavefront approaches the two media with different
densities. Since the incident wave is travelling as an angle,
a small portion of the wavefront starts to slow down upon Why do we get easily sunburned in ultraviolet light but not
impact to the boundary while the rest are maintaining in visible light? The sun is a source of the full spectrum of
their speeds. This condition makes the wavefront bend the ultraviolet radiation which is responsible for causing us
while entering the second medium with higher density. sunburn. This UV light has higher frequency than visible
light, therefore it has higher energy.
Diffraction is the slight bending of light as it passes
around the edge of an object which depends on the Why is red light used in photographic darkrooms?
Darkrooms used red lighting to allow careful control light
to pass through, so that photographic paper which is light in all directions. Of the band of colors of light, violet has
sensitive would not become overexposed that will result the shortest wavelength of 400 nanometer. It is scattered
to ruining the pictures during the developing process. Red the most, followed by indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange
light in the visible region of the spectrum has the lowest and red which is scattered the least. But our eyes is not
frequency and lowest energy and therefore it does not sensitive to indigo and violet, and blue is most
affect the photo developing process. predominant to our sight, so we see the blue sky.

How do we see colors? Visible light is a small part within In the late afternoon where the sun is in the horizon, the
the spectrum that human eyes are sensitive to and can loner wavelength red light reaches our eyes more than the
detect. It is of different frequencies and each frequency is blue light which are scattered the most. Red being
a particular color. scattered the least is transmitted and passed through
more of the atmosphere than any other color. Thus, it is
Objects appear in different colors because they absorb the red color together with some orange that reaches our
some colors and reflect or transmit the others. White eyes in the late afternoon and we see the beautiful red-
objects appear white because they reflect all colors. Black orange sunset.
objects absorb all of them so no light is reflected.
Clouds are made of water droplets of varying sizes. Smaller
droplets scatter blue, green, and yellow and even red
color. A combination of these color results in white clouds.

Rain clouds appear dark because the water droplets

become bigger and denser and it can absorb lighter than
scatter it. It almost all colors are absorbing, the resulting
color is dark or even black.

Interference of light
The beautiful spectrum of colors reflected on the soap
bubbles are produced by the interference of light. It occurs
when 2 waves meet while travelling on the same medium.
It may be constructive interference producing bright
fringes or destructive interference producing dark bands.
In the case of soap bubbles, the incident ray of white light
Subtopic 3: Properties of Light
constructively interferes in the different regions of the
bubbles producing the rainbow-colored appearance.
Dispersion
Interference of light clearly demonstrates the wave nature
As light enters into a prism, or an object that may act as a
of light.
prism, it separates into different band of colors. This
separation of white light into different colors as it passes
A view from San Franz, El Salvador City Photo credits to Mr.
through a prism is called dispersion. The separated band of
Zigger Villahermosa, SH of San Franz ES, El Salvador City
colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet,
Division
ranges from 400 nanometer to 700 nano meter
wavelength. Dispersion occurs due to the slight difference
As you look the light through the slit between your fingers,
in the refractive index of each color.
you will observe the vertical white and dark bands which is
due to the bending of light as it passes through an opening
A rainbow is formed after a rain shower when droplets of
or an obstacle. This is described as diffraction of light.
falling water acts as a prism that separates the rays of the
The narrower the slit, the more pronounced the pattern
sun hitting the water droplets into band of different colors.
become.
A rainbow captured after a rain shower in Baungon,
Bukidnon. Photo credits to Ms. Marivic Labita.

Scattering of light is responsible for this blue- colored sky

and beautiful horizon. Tiny dust particles, and atoms of
oxygen and nitrogen in the atmosphere which are far apart
from each other acts as scatterers. They scatter sunlight